


When your past came knocking on your door

by onnall



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-28
Updated: 2016-01-28
Packaged: 2018-05-16 20:51:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,181
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5840557
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/onnall/pseuds/onnall
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What if FN-2187 was not the only traitor the First Order ever had and...</p>
            </blockquote>





	When your past came knocking on your door

A report was circulated within the high ranking officers of the First Order, high ranking officers only. No words should be spoken on this matter to the Stormtroopers or other low ranking staff.

The report said that a newly promoted colonel took his fleet and defected to the New Republic. When the report arrived, Kylo Ren was on the bridge of the Finalizer. Low ranking officers had all been dismissed from the bridge, so only him and the officers senior enough to view the report stayed. The report included the name of the colonel and number of personnel that went with him. A strategy meeting was scheduled for the next day, no immediate order of any retaliation yet. Kylo Ren didn't recognize the name on the report, nor did he recognize the designation of the fleet either. He sensed the embarrassment, anger and contempt emanating from the officers, all the usual feelings Kylo Ren would expect people to have against a traitor, even though he was indifferent towards this one. One person had more complicated feelings, General Hux. Ren also sensed regret and self-loathe from him. _That's taking it a bit too personal_ , thought Ren.

"Call back the personnel on duty." Hux ordered to the officers after the report initiated self destruction protocol.

When the bridge returned from dead silence to its normal busy noise, Kylo Ren slowly moved to the side of Hux. He considered asking Hux about the matter, but finally decided not to push it. He gave Hux a slight pat on the back, without drawing anyone else's attention, and left the bridge.

Ren went to the record room to pull the colonel's record from the archive. The was nothing spectacular about this individual. Wins and failures in battle, normal promotions. The only thing that brought Ren's attention was the years the colonel was in the Academy. If Ren remembered correctly, it was the same time period General Hux was at the Academy.

\--------------------------

General Hux returned to his quarters to a surprise.

Well, it was hardly a surprise. Kylo Ren had been spending nights in his quarters for a while. But this evening Hux returned to his quarters earlier than usual because he needed to rest, to relax, to get away from the paperwork just this one night. Ren normally wouldn't come over this early.

But there he was, the Master of the Knights of Ren, sitting cross-legged on his floor, mask by his side, cape neatly folded underneath the mask.

"Ren, I'm not really in the mood." Hux let out a sigh and closed the door behind him.

"Not in the mood to talk?" Ren tapped on the floor next to him, gesturing Hux to sit down there. "Or we can sit on the couch if you prefer."

 _I'm also not in the mood to hear you whine_ , thought Hux, but he moved to Kylo Ren any way and sat down in front of him. "I can talk alright."

"Is..." Ren reconsidered his words, "Was the traitor your friend back in the Academy?"

"Did Leader Snoke send you to interrogate me?" Hux frowned.

"Trust me General, my former interrogatees would _love_ to be interrogated this way." Ren chuckled. "I just know you went to the Academy at the same time. And you clearly felt something different for his defect than your other colleagues. So I'm curious."

Hux stared at him without answering, when he finally spoke, his tone was sharp, sharper than Kylo Ren anticipated. "Why don't you just get in my head and find out."

Kylo Ren was taken aback a little, a hint of anger flashed across his face. He leaned over to close the gap a bit between him and the General. "General, may I remind you that you don't want to agitate me, when I'm in my extremely rare perfect mood." He sat back straight and continued, "I promised you before that I won't probe your mind unless you genuinely give me your consent, and that's a promise I intend to keep."

Hux's stance softened a little hearing Ren repeated his promise and also remembering his touch earlier that day. "We were not friends. We..." Hux looked down, as if trying to figure out the best way to decribe it, Ren waited. "There was something going on between me and him after we graduated." As if to further explain, he added, "briefly."

Ren didn't comment, he waited for the General to continue.

"We were assigned on the same ship after graduation." Hux continued slowly, choosing the words carefully. "We weren't close in the Academy, but on the ship we... uh... Let's just say it was easier to form an alliance with someone you knew..."

"An alliance?" Ren asked when Hux halted the story.

"I don't know how I can define it with other words." Hux looked away to the window for a while before turning back to face Kylo Ren. "But I guess you can argue that one doesn't have to sleep with his ally. That was probably just physical needs."

An uneasy feeling rose inside Kylo Ren. He couldn't help but see the similarity to his relationship with Hux. Oh scratch ~~RELATIONSHIP~~ , he told himself. And he reminded himself that they were rivals, not allies. We hate each other, he emphasized to himself.

"I need some water, you want some?" Ren stood up and moved to the kitchen.

"Sure, thanks." Hux also stood up, but moved to the window and leaned against the frame. Even though Kylo Ren straightened up the fact that Hux was his rival, there was another thing he needed to remind himself of. _I'm here this evening because Leader Snoke needs a functioning General, not one that's having unnecessary thoughts over a traitor, so this is work, nothing else_ , he repeated to himself.

But then, what was the purpose of sleeping with Hux? _OK that's because it feels good. Oh so now we are giving in to feelings?_ Kylo Ren decided to revisit this problem later.

"Here." Ren passed a glass of water to Hux and leaned against the other side of the frame.

"Thanks." Tasted the sourness in the water, Hux knew Ren had put the dried fruit he bought from the last planet they visited in the water jar. "So you like that dried fruit?"

"Yeah, I like the gourmet shit you buy here and there. Better than what the vendors supply to the kitchen." Ren usually wouldn't care what he ate or drank, but he had to admit Hux knew how to take care of himself.

"Well, when I drink or eat them, I want to taste them. Too bad we didn't have more time to go to a bigger market to get some fresh fruit, that planet was famous for it." Hux sat down on the sill, put the glass beside him. "Maybe next time."

"But you said whatever you had with your _ally_ didn't last long." Ren sat down opposite Hux, with his feet almost touching Hux's and continued the earlier conversation.

"I had to cut him lose." Hux looked out of the window. Now the Finalizer was orbiting in the daylight side of the planet, the sunlight that went through the window spread over Hux's face and made it somehow even more pale. "He was dragging me down."

Ren didn't even need to ask 'What happened?', Hux continued on his own. "You probably noticed, my lieutenants don't really see eye to eye with each other."

"Well I don't see eye to eye with you either, so that's tone at the top." Ren snorted.

"If you put it that way." Hux laughed, "Anyway, it's the same everywhere, since the very beginning, probably also the same back in the Empire days." He stretched his leg a bit further so that he was sitting less tensely, now his legs were intertwined with Ren's. "My father didn't really help me with my career like a lot of people assumed. But he did teach me when I was a little boy, how to survive in the First Order."

Ren's right foot slowly moved up and down Hux's right thigh, but Hux stopped him, holding his foot still on the window sill. "Anyway, the day I set foot on that ship, I knew my commanding officer was never going to make it to the top. He would be lucky if he could make it to the next level." Hux took another sip from his water, "And he was not lucky."

"You were the one taking him down?" Ren took his right foot back, crossed his legs.

"On paper he was subject to disciplinary probation as a result of dishonorable act." Hux moved down from the window sill, and walked to the couch to get the blankets on the couch. "You cold? Want a blanket?"

"No, you can use both if you are really cold." Ren shook his head. Hux wrapped one blanket around his shoulder, sat back down on the window sill and spread the other one over his legs. "I'll just say another officer wanted him gone, and I was kind enough to help. And I'm not ashamed that I negotiated myself a nice promotion."

"But your ally..."

"Well now I regret using that word... He really wasn't my ally." Hux laughed. "I asked him to get in on this with me, he said no. He said he had principles and he wanted to have a respectable career."

"How did he define respectable?" Ren stretched out his leg again, and reached it into the blanket Hux spread over his legs.

"Clearly not the same way I... the Order defined it. In my point of view, people respect you because of your rank." Hux moved the blanket a little bit to cover Ren's feet. "After the event I stopped whatever we were doing. I also worked on the opportunity to move to another ship, of course also with a promotion. I couldn't risk working under the person who knew what I did."

"And now once again you work with someone who knows that, although with no details." A huge grin showed on Ren's face.

Hux stared at Ren as he took in what it meant. "Secrets are safe with you, you don't plot. You want me dead, you drive your saber through me, you force choke me, what other killer tricks you have? Anyway, you won't use my secret against me."

Kylo Ren didn't know whether it was a good thing that Hux imagined ways that he would kill him with. He would want most people, if not all, to be intimidated by his murderous reputation, but when it was said like that by Hux, it didn't sink in very well in him.

"I can also just tell you to slash your own throat. But you are not weak minded, probably won't work." Ren's reply didn't exactly follow his train of thoughts. "So if it was this simple, why were you being hard on yourself today, when the report arrived? I sensed something else from you than from the other officers."

"I was wondering whether I missed something." Hux sighed, he looked out of the window again, paused for a long while, as if lost in the stars. "I don't believe for a second that this is a decision made in the heat of the moment. He might be thinking about defecting for years, hell, he might have been sent to the Academy by the enemies and was just being an undercover spy. I had the chance to catch him, put him down, and I missed it..."

"You are overthinking this." Ren abruptly cut Hux off. "If he were undercover he would've stayed undercover, collecting information, till he reached your position. And if he'd been thinking about defecting for a long time... Well..." Ren knew what it was like to be committed to one side but be pulled to the opposite side. Although that was not a self reflection he was ready to share with Hux. "It wouldn't be that long. The struggle itself might just drive him crazy." _Maybe I'm just on the verge of being crazy_ , thought Ren. "Anyway you should focus on the future, not the past. Shouldn't you be presenting some reaction plan tomorrow during the meeting to impress Leader Snoke?"

"Everyone will be. Good reminder, I should focus on that." Hux turned back from looking at the stars, holding Ren's gaze. "Why are you here today, talking to me about this?"

"Were you ready to start working on your plan when you just got back?" Ren moved down from the window sill, walked to the spot where he left his mask and cape.

"Not really."

"Are you ready now?" Ren picked his mask and cape up.

"Yeah..."

"That's why." Ren put on his cape and mask, ready to leave.

"Do you mind staying."

Ren looked back at the General, even though Hux couldn't see his face now, he would guess that Ren looked puzzled or surprised.

"I might want to talk the plan through with you." Hux shrugged, and walked to his desk.

**Author's Note:**

> Basically got the idea when I read in the Domhnall Gleeson interview where he said that General Hux probably put people down on his way to where we see him. So... Poorly executed though, sorry about that. :P


End file.
